by Lisa McMann
Meghan wondered if Aaron had gotten word that Artimé was suspicious, and had decided to leave the wall destruction to the Necessaries and put the Quillitary on order to attack. Liam hedged a bit, saying he thought it was more likely the Quillitary who was making decisions, but he didn’t know much.
“Are you saying the Quillitary is running this attack, not Aaron?” Meghan had asked him.
“Truly, I don’t know,” he said. He looked more uncomfortable than ever.
That left Meghan puzzled, but it was all she could get out of him before he’d hurried away. Still, she was grateful for the information.
Now, as the leaders stood in the mansion to confer before joining their teams, Charlie the gargoyle tugged at Ms. Morning’s component vest.
“Not right now, Charlie,” Ms. Morning said, distracted. “Unless you’ve caught sight of Alex and Simber and the ship—have you?”
Charlie shook his head.
“Too bad. We could use them. Any other emergencies or imminent danger?”
Charlie thought for a moment, and then shrugged and shook his head again.
“We’ll talk after this confrontation is over, then, all right? Head upstairs and stay safe.”
Charlie nodded and climbed back up the steps to Alex’s office, where he spent so much of his time.
“Everybody ready?” Meghan asked. She’d stepped into her new leadership role as a Magical Warrior trainer in Florence’s absence, and she was very good at her job. Now she stood alongside Ms. Morning, the commander in chief, as an equal. She was armed, dangerous, totally committed, and prepared to fight to the death for Artimé. This young woman who stood by the front door of the mansion today was a far cry from the scared little red-haired girl who had arrived on the property at age thirteen. Meghan Ranger was muscular and cunning. She knew it, and she was proud of it. She only hoped she was cunning enough to keep Artimé’s losses to a minimum and lead her people to victory.
Claire looked around at the other leaders and nodded solemnly. “Yes, we’re ready. Let’s go.” They followed Meghan out of the mansion.
Several teams sat upon the lawn, looking quite like they were having a normal day enjoying the weather and each other’s company. They were seated this way to give the Quillitary a sense that Artimé was not expecting an attack. But each group was set up behind a magical glass wall, which created clear barriers that were undetectable from a distance. These groups were on high alert, ready to fight at a second’s notice.
Other teams lined the border, stationed high up in the trees that had once helped to camouflage the ugly gray wall. Squirrelicorns circled now and then as they often did, this time prepared to report to their groups in the trees any change in the status in Quill.
Still other fighters remained on alert inside the mansion, prepared to attack if the enemy got in, ready to defend their home at all costs.
The absence of Simber left everyone just a little bit unsettled. Surely the Quillitary would notice he wasn’t there, and no doubt they would take advantage of it. There was a chance they wouldn’t notice the absence of other key fighters, including Alex, at least not right away. Meghan could only hope that Artimé’s weaknesses were not exposed too soon. She’d done everything in her power to design this defense, and lives depended on it working right.
Claire and Mr. Appleblossom climbed into neighboring trees near the traditional entrance to Artimé, where the gate had once been. There was no sign of the Quillitary from there.
“I certainly hope we weren’t given false information,” Claire said.
Mr. Appleblossom smiled at his longtime friend. “In ages past we’d climb these trees for fun. What matter is it, if it’s all for none?”
Claire couldn’t help but grin. “You’re right of course, Siggy. There’s nothing to lose by making this a practice run.”
» » « «
The warriors of Artimé bided their time through the slow morning hours, watching, waiting, and listening for the squeals and chugs of the Quillitary vehicles. And just when they thought Liam’s warning was fake, a squirrelicorn darted to Meghan’s side. Meghan signaled to Claire, Claire whispered to a party stationed on the ground, and someone from that party whispered to someone in the next party, and so on and so forth all across the lawn, until someone slipped inside the mansion to alert those inside.
“They’re coming.”
Gondoleery Makes a Move
When Gondoleery finally got around to being curious about the planned attack on Artimé, she left her house and made her way to the palace to see how Aaron was handling things. She heard a loud boom as she walked. The ground shook below her feet. “Stupid wall,” she muttered.
Quillitary vehicles whizzed past her at speeds she’d never seen before. Some headed to the palace, others toward Artimé. Gondoleery sighed. They just didn’t learn. Artimé wasn’t a land of stupid people, and it was a big mistake to treat them as such. They’d be ready for the Quillitary, no doubt.
“Now,” she muttered, “if only I could get everyone in the same place.”
She shoved past the groggy-looking guards at the portcullis and raised a newly redrawn eyebrow at the throng of soldiers who stood alert, guarding the palace.
“What’s happening?” Gondoleery asked, walking up to them.
“We’re safeguarding the palace, Governor. Protecting the high priest from potential attacks.”
Gondoleery snorted. “Well, that’s a relief.” She approached the door. “Let me in,” she said to the soldier standing there.
He hesitated, looked to his superior, who snarled at him, and stepped aside to let her in.
Gondoleery entered and looked around. The entry area was empty. Shrugging, she clumped up the stairs and went down the hall to Aaron’s office. Empty as well. Papers were scattered on the floor. Gondoleery frowned and went in. She scrutinized the papers to see if there was any useful information, and then walked to the window where a statue stood, and peered out. There were soldiers surrounding the palace as far as she could see.
After a minute, Gondoleery left the office and listened at the rickety stairway that led up to Liam’s room, but she could only hear a light snoring sound echoing from the tower. She turned around and went to the conference room, finding the oil press standing alone on the table. Aaron wasn’t there, either. She slunk down the hall to Aaron’s sleeping quarters. The door stood open, and the room was dark.
“Aaron?” Gondoleery called. There was no answer. Where was he?
Gondoleery scratched her head and began to chuckle, just as Liam descended the stairs from his room, yawning.
“Good morning, Gondoleery,” Liam said. “It appears I’ve slept late this morning. Is, ah, is anything new going on in Quill? Or anywhere else?” He’d tossed and turned until very late, finally falling into a hard sleep. Now he fought to hide his anxiety as well as his knowledge of the attack on Artimé, for he didn’t know how much Gondoleery knew about it.
“Oh, there’s something new all right,” Gondoleery said with a laugh. “General Blair has apparently taken great pains to protect the high priest, as you’ll see by the scores of soldiers surrounding the palace. But no one actually bothered to make sure the high priest was inside it before they locked it down.”
Liam frowned. “What? You mean Aaron’s not here?”
“I certainly can’t find him. Have a look for yourself. He’s given them the slip! I didn’t think he had it in him. People are surprising me left and right these days.” She shook her head and laughed again. “Shall we break the news to them, or just let them discover it on their own?”
Liam paled. This wasn’t part of the plan. Where had Aaron gone? The only place he could think of was Artimé, to fight. He was surprised Aaron hadn’t confided this plan to him, and he wondered now if Aaron really did trust him as much as he seemed to. “Are—are you sure?”
Gondoleery shrugged and filed a fingernail on her teeth. “I said have a look yourself—wait, what’s that?” She tilted
her head toward the stairwell that led down to the entryway. “Do you hear something?”
There was a faint pounding coming from behind the closed door to the servants’ kitchen. Liam looked at Gondoleery, then ran down the stairs and to the door. He tried opening it, but it was stuck. He slammed up against it, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Who’s in there?” he shouted.
The reply was a muffled series of shouts and groans. Liam ran to get something with which to leverage the door, and tried wedging it into the casement. The rotting wood split and the broken door fell open.
Before him, six guards lay gagged and tied.
“Gondoleery!” Liam called. “Come quickly!”
He began working to unfasten the knotted rope around the first guard’s wrists and ankles. The rope was stiff, like new—unlike any rope Quill had seen in decades, he was sure.
Gondoleery appeared in the doorway, but she didn’t deign to help. Instead she peppered the guards with questions once a few of them were able to remove their gags.
“Who did this? When did it happen? Where’s Aaron?”
The head guard coughed, trying to speak. Liam rushed to get him a cup of water from the bucket while Gondoleery continued with more questions. “Did the Quillitary do this? Or did Aaron? What is going on here?”
Finally, the guard could speak. “Neither. We were ambushed last evening. Twenty or more strangers broke in and overtook us. They shoved us in here and tied us up. A few hours later we heard another scuffle, then nothing more until you found us.” He coughed. “We don’t know who they were, but it wasn’t the Quillitary. And I don’t know where the high priest is, or if he was involved. I heard a muffled shout that sounded like him last evening, and then silence. I can only guess he was captured and taken away.”
Liam and Gondoleery exchanged looks.
“Captured?” Gondoleery asked slowly. “Taken away?”
The words sank in. With a strange look on her face, Gondoleery turned and walked out of the room. At the door leading outside she paused, her singed fingertips on the handle. And then a wicked smile spread across her face. She opened the door, looked over her shoulder at Liam.
“Governor,” she said, “you are relieved of your duties. I’m taking over as high priest, and I declare that your time in Quill is done. Please make your way to the Ancients Sector.”
Liam’s mouth fell open. His stomach knotted with fear. He gripped the banister as sweat broke out on his forehead, and the knot in his stomach twisted and churned. “What?” he whispered.
Gondoleery cackled. “You heard me.” She turned to go once more, when a flurry of activity stopped her in the open doorway. A small group of bedraggled Necessaries was running up the driveway, covered in rock-wall dust, fresh wounds bleeding through torn bits of clothing. Some carried children.
Gondoleery sneered. “What do you want?” she asked the first one to reach her.
“There was an accident, Governor! The last section of the wall collapsed. It fell inward, on top of the workers, and it crushed several houses.”
Gondoleery sighed. “What a shame.”
“Rows twenty-five through twenty-seven in the Necessaries Sector are completely demolished!”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Gondoleery tilted her head as if she hadn’t a clue.
“Tell the high priest, for one!” cried the Necessary. He looked around desperately at the stragglers behind him.
A man approached, carrying two crying toddlers. “These children are orphans—their parents died in the collapse.”
Gondoleery looked at the children like they were diseased animals. “Well, I surely don’t want them,” she said.
The man sighed, exasperated. “They aren’t for you, they’re for the high priest—”
“That’s what we’re trying to tell you,” interrupted the first. “The high priest’s father was working on the wall when it collapsed. And it crushed their house, where his wife was with the children. The Stowes—they’re both dead, you see. We pulled the babies from the rubble. They’re the high priest’s sisters.”
“I’m sure he would want to look after them,” said another Necessary.
Gondoleery stared at them.
Liam stared at Gondoleery, still in shock from what happened earlier, and now this. . . .
Gondoleery looked from one bloody, bruised face to the next. “Aaron’s sisters, you say?” she asked slowly.
“Yes,” said the first Necessary. He took one of the girls and held her out to Gondoleery.
She narrowed her eyes, but took the child gingerly in her arms, and then reached out for the other, a look of disgust apparent on her face. “I’ll see to it that Aaron gets them,” she said. “Soldiers,” she said to the Quillitary members stationed by the door, “please escort the Necessaries outside the palace gates where they belong.”
She didn’t wait for the Necessaries or the soldiers to respond. Instead she stepped back into the palace and closed the door with her foot. Then she shoved the twins into Liam’s arms. “Here.”
Startled, he took them. “What am I supposed to do with babies?”
“You’ll take them with you to the Ancients Sector,” Gondoleery said. She wiped her hands on her blouse, then opened the door to make sure the Necessaries were gone and stepped out once more. “Let the proprietor know I want all three of you put to sleep by morning.”
Liam gaped. Gondoleery slammed the palace door, shoved past the Quillitary guards, and got into an awaiting vehicle. Through the window he could see her barking orders, and soon the jalopy roared off. He looked at the girls. One of them tugged at his ear, and the other began to fuss. “Mama,” she whimpered.
“What in Quill?” Liam whispered, and a fearful breath escaped him. Babies? To the Ancients Sector? No one had ever heard such a heartless command, not even in Quill. Liam’s eyes darted around the palace, from the empty staircase to the servants’ kitchen where half a dozen guards had heard every command given by the new self-declared high priest. They would see to it that her wishes were carried out—that was the way of Quill. His chest tightened, and he could taste something sour burning his throat. Gondoleery was a monster. A monster who was now in control of Quill. And Liam and these babies would be dead by morning.
He had no choice in Quill but to obey. He tightened his grip on the twins as first one then the other began to cry. “Shh,” Liam said. He glanced up the steps.
Seeing Liam’s hesitation, the lead guard cleared his throat and approached, followed by two more. “We’ll arrange your ride,” the lead guard said, his voice cold as ice.
Liam whipped his head around at the sound, his eyes wild and panicked.
When the guard opened the door to call for a driver, Liam darted out, twins in tow. He broke through the confused line of Quillitary soldiers and ran across the driveway, half sliding, half hopping down the bank toward the sea, knowing that his wasn’t the only life that depended on his stamina and speed. And hoping against hope that the thundering of footsteps behind him that grew louder by the second would stop . . . or he was never going to make it.
Home at Long Last
They’d spotted Quill at dawn looming large on the horizon, and now it was only a matter of time before Alex and the team would be home. Alex stood with his friends at the bow, the sun warming their backs, their faces to the breeze, thinking about their soft beds and all the wonderful food in the kitchen awaiting them.
“I’m going to collapse in my room and order up everything on the menu,” Samheed said. “I’m glad Ishibashi-san gave us all these fruits and vegetables, but I’m hungry for some real food.”
“Me too,” Lani said. “And ready for home cooking.”
Alex’s stomach growled thinking about it. He could just barely see the top of the mansion reflecting the morning light. But he was anxious, too. “I hope everything’s okay.” He glanced at Simber overhead.
“It seems quiet,” Simber said. “People arrre sitting on the lawn. E
arrrlierrr I saw a cloud of dust rrrise up frrrom the farrr side of the island. I’ll bet that was anotherrr chunk of the wall coming down.”
Alex shook his head, trying to imagine Quill without its wall. “What else can you see?”
Simber flapped his wings. “I’m not surrre what to think of this, but at dawn I could see the outline of a pirrrate ship behind us, heading east. We must have passed it durrring the night.”
“Strange,” murmured Alex. “Or maybe not. I’ve never seen another one, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out here sometimes.”
Simber was quiet for a moment, and then he said, “Look towarrrd Arrrtimé. Tell me if you see something.”
Alex and the others did so.
“There’s a tiny sparkle,” Henry said.
“A bunch of them,” Sky said. “They’re all over the lawn.”
Alex nodded. “I see them too.” He looked up. “What do you think it is, Simber? Can you tell?”
“I’ve been seeing the little glints of light forrr some time, and I think I’ve just figurrred out what they arrre.”
Alex held his hand up to his eyes to protect them from the glare on the water, straining to see Artimé. “What are they?”
“They’rrre glass shields,” Simber said. “The people on the lawn arrre all sitting behind them. We’rrre seeing the sunlight rrreflected off them as we move along.”
Alex leaned forward. “Why would they all be sitting behind—” He stopped short, and then, along with Samheed and Lani, said, “Ohhh.” The three friends looked at each other as the realization came over them.
Samheed looked up at Simber. “What’s going on?”
“I think they arrre expecting company. And not just us.”
